I almost passed on Dark Horse’s new mini-series The Answer by Mike Norton and Dennis Hopeless but Hopeless has
done some interesting work with Marvel and Norton has done decent art on some
Image books and I said what the hell. I mean if I’m picking up all sorts of new
books from the big two just because of familiar characters I should take more
chances on new stuff, especially from creators I’m aware of and have enjoyed
their work.
So I got The Answer #1 and I’m hooked and I’ll be back for
the rest of the series. The one main question I have is why is The Answer a
mask with an exclamation point? Of course somehow he will have to be paired off
with or fight against The Question or not. Okay I got that goofy stuff out of
my system.
All kidding aside the book does a great job and pulling you
into the story immediately and then never letting go. By the end of the book
I’d be mystified if you did not want to read the next issue which is what you
want a first issue to do.
We open with a woman on the edge of a building. To her side
on the next building is The Answer cajoling her to jump. Men come out and start
shooting at her and she jumps against her better judgment.
We flashback and find out she is a librarian. She gets a
birthday present from her Mom that is a Rubik’s cube on steroids. She solves it
and is invited onto a website and proceeds to solve hard and harder puzzles.
When she wins The Answer shows up and tells her she is in danger. An action
sequence ensures and the hero gets her to get onto a bus to escape. She watches
as The Answer is shot in the head. The end is The Answer walks up to her as she
is now sleeping on the bus some ways down the road.
Of course there are other things going on, but that is the
gist of the set up. One thing I loved was they used the horrid cliché of
killing the hero in the first issue and made sure we did not have to wait until
next issue to know it was not true. Of course maybe it was because who knows who
The Answer is or what he is or perhaps how many of them. When a first issue has
me wondering and entertains so well it is a winner in my book.
This was an excellent start to a new mini-series.
Part 5 tomorrow!
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